Event Details

Thursday, Feb 23, 2017

Lecture: The African Presence in Spanish Florida

Description: This talk is FREE and open to the public. The Manatee Village parking lot and grounds will open at 5pm. The talk will begin in the 1887 Old Meeting House Church at 5:30pm.

Dr. Rosalyn Howard, Professor Emeritus in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Central Florida, will give a presentation on the relationship between Florida Seminole Indians and their African allies, often called Black Seminoles.

Spanish Florida epitomized a sanctuary of freedom for Africans enslaved on the plantations of Alabama, the Carolinas and Georgia and truly was the southern route of the Underground Railroad until the United States annexed the territory in 1821.

Escaped slaves formed a relationship with Florida Seminoles, before many of these Black Seminoles eventually escaped to the Bahamas.

"The African Presence in Spanish Florida and the Bahamas: The Black Seminoles" will also explore the cultural and ancestral connections between Red Bays, the Bahamian community the Black Seminoles settled in 1821, and Angola, a maroon community
formerly located in the Tampa-Sarasota Bay area.

About FPAN

The Florida Public Archaeology Network is dedicated to the protection of cultural resources, both on land and underwater, and to involving the public in the study of their past. Regional centers around Florida serve as clearinghouses for information, institutions for learning and training, and headquarters for public participation in archaeology.